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A still life of objects in blue, green, brown, red and orange.

The painting is of seven objects in bold colors. A dark blue object with a light blue top on a light blue background is in the lower center. A green pot is to the left. In the center is a figure with a mask-like face. A brown object on a dark green background is to the left, at the back is an orange object with black markings on top. A red pitcher with black highlights is at the center next to a red object with darker red highlights on the far right. The top of the painting is pink.

Gallery Text

In 1905, while still an architecture student in Dresden, Schmidt-Rottluff, along with the artists Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, formed the expressionist group Brücke. They employed intense color and bold and distorted forms in their work, and their depictions of space were often non-naturalistic. By breaking free of artistic traditions and conventions, they believed they could achieve a kind of spiritual reawakening. In addition to absorbing the ideas of cubism and futurism, Brücke artists drew inspiration from the art of Africa and Oceania, which they saw in ethnographic museums and sometimes collected. Schmidt-Rottluff produced a series of stylized heads resembling African masks, but also incorporated actual objects into his compositions. One of several paintings made around 1913 in which African figures, vessels, and pipe bowls are depicted among more familiar household objects, this work exemplifies the expressionists’ rethinking of even the most traditional genres. It transforms the domestic still life into a flattened field of thickly outlined geometric forms saturated with bold color.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
BR53.103
People
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, German (Rottluff near Chemnitz 1884 - 1976 West Berlin)
Title
Still Life
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1913
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/223725

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1500, Modern and Contemporary Art, Art in Germany Between the Wars
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
66.2 x 74.7 cm (26 1/16 x 29 7/16 in.)
framed: 68 x 77 x 3.2 cm (26 3/4 x 30 5/16 x 1 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: in oil at l.l.: S. Rottluff 1913

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Julia Feininger, gift; to Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1953.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Julia Feininger
Copyright
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Accession Year
1953
Object Number
BR53.103
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Charles Werner Haxthausen, "The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard: the Germanic Tradition", Apollo (May 1978), vol. 107, no. 195, pp. 403-413, p. 410
  • Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 167

Exhibition History

  • 19th- and 20th-Century Paintings and Sculpture from the Museum's Collection, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/11/1980 - 08/31/1980
  • Works from the 20th Century Collection of the Busch-Reisinger, Wildenstein Gallery, New York, New York, 09/23/1980 - 10/24/1980
  • German Painting 1760-1960: A New Installation, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 12/20/1983 - 02/19/1984
  • 32Q: 1500 Art in Germany Between the Wars (Expressionism-Interwar), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu